A Tribute to Tributes

LA's "Thai Elvis" - Kavee “Kevin” Thongpricha

I used to scorn tribute bands as being, well, less-than. 

But in the past several weeks, I realized the number of "tribute" concerts I've attended outnumbered those by actual music acts: A David Bowie birthday celebration; actor Michael Shannon's all-REM show for the 40th anniversary of Murmur; and a career retrospective of Neil Young - and I was surprised at how fulflling the experiences were. 

Does this mean I'm getting older, more forgiving - or that, at its best, the form is actually worthier than I gave it credit for? 

Back when I was at Rolling Stone in the late 80's, I pitched a piece to my editors about tribute bands. I had noticed a lot of ads for such acts in music publications. Instead of being a generic bar/wedding band covering a range of popular songs, these guys -- and yeah, they were mostly guys -- dressed up as, and sang the oeuvre of, a single band. Anything from Styx to Steely Dan. 

Being a young snobby rock writer, I found it a mixture of interesting, funny, and kind of pathetic. I had never been to one, but I imagined they could bring joy to crowds - many of whom might not have access to see the real acts, for any number of reasons, including geographic and economic, even deaths of the musician(s). 

I envisioned it as a photo-driven feature, but I also wanted to interview the musicians, about how they had ended up on this particular path to music-biz careers. 

It was rejected. Probably correctly so. The stories would have blurred together, the fun might have been sad, and it would have seemed snarky. Plus, it would have taken up valuable real estate in the magazine from actual bands writing original material trying to make their way. It would sort of be like covering Joe Piscopo doing Sinatra. 

Then when I moved to LA in 2002, I was told I *had* to see Thai Elvis. Every Friday and Saturday night at a restaurant in Thai Town on Hollywood Boulevard, a man named Kavee "Kevin" Thongpricha (above) wore a sparkly suit and karaoked a convincing Elvis. (It's a tradition that apparently has its origins in Thailand and there's another guy who was doing it in LA prepandemic who was in his 70s). 

I went, it was fun, and had an extra layer of intrigue above the usual Elvis impersonator because of his nationality, but it was more curio/camp than musically compelling. 

On the other hand, I was a huge fan of the tribute albums and concerts organized by the late great impresario Hal Willner. He started with jazz musicians and in non-rock genres - Nino Rota, Thelonious Monk, Allen Ginsberg -- but eventually lassoed rock and avant garde musicians onto albums interpreting Kurt Weill, Disney soundtracks, Harry Smith American folk and sea shanties. 

He assembled shaggy, miraculous live shows honoring Randy Newman, Leonard Cohen, and Bob Dylan's first Town Hall concert -- the last of which included everyone from Bill Murray to Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (below, with the Milk Carton Kids) -- but it all worked. 

When Hal died in 2020, he was finishing a T.Rex album which included this Nick Cave cover: 

I did once foray to a show by "Lez Zeppelin," an all-female Led Zep tribute band, because I know the brother of one of the members - and it was both serious musicianship and a hoot. 

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The only other memorable tribute-type shows I've eagerly attended were by the Fab Faux, who I saw for the fourth time last November, playing all of Revolver and "The Psychedelic Singles."

Will Lee rocking Imagine clouds suit, Beacon Theater, 11/23

Formed in 1998 by Letteman bassist Will Lee, the band of veterans - including Conan's guitarist Jimmy Vivino - take Beatle nostalgia out of the costumed realm of Beatlemania and into a whole other level of musicianship. They perform live many songs the Beatles never did, since they stopped touring as their recordings and relationships got more complicated.

One of the Fab Faux's more impressive feats was this seamless re-creation of Side 2 of Abbey Road (remember when albums had sides?) which had been pastiched together from many different sessions. 

Today - despite the Dead never really dying, despite residencies at the Sphere in Las Vegas, despite holograms and Broadway shows and IMAX concert films and live streaming and all sorts of ways to see vintage acts -- there is still a thriving tribute band business. 

A quick Google turned up dozens just in the NYC area - where "genuine" live music is plentiful. Tributes to Abba, George Michael, Queen, Elton John, Janis Joplin, Guns N Roses, Pink Floyd, and Simon & Garfunkel. There's "Jagged Little Thrill - the Alanis Experience" and "Echoes of The Eagles" -- even though those acts are alive. (Well, some Eagles). Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew themselves are touring the Talking Heads Remain in Light album. And one could argue that at this point, some of the older acts have devolved into kind of ossified self-tributes. 

So my expectations were middling when I booked tickets for the recent shows, but all of them were kind of amazing. 

The Bowie birthday at City Winery, led by upstate musician Robert Burke Warren, featured several sung by Rhett Miller of the Old '97s, a couple by Broadway star Michael Cerveris, and the soul singer Queen Esther. Perhaps the most memorable was when of the middle-aged female backup singers took the mike for a raucous "Jean Genie." Although the sadness of Bowie's early passing sometimes seeped in, it was a warm reminder of his enduring genius.

Michael Cerveris, Rhett Miller, Queen Esther at Bowie tribute

I was even more skeptical of the REM show by Michael Shannon -- even though he's one of my favorite actors, and his singing as George Jones in the Showtime series George and Tammy was admirable. 

I'd heard of him doing a show covering the entire Modern Lovers debut, and apparently he also did Bowie's Scary Monsters, The Smith's The Queen Is Dead, and Lou Reed's The Blue Mask - all offbeat choices. So he's clearly a fanboy with good taste. But trying to recapture such a legendary album seemed to border on hubris. 

Narducy & fundraiserposter

But he and his Chicago musician pal Jason Narducy had done a show in 2023 in their hometown of Chicago - and REM bassist Mike Mills had shown up and participated, and they decided to book a mini tour -- 8 shows in 7 cities in less than two weeks. 

And then the craziest thing that could happen at a tribute show happened: think Joe Cocker singing along side John Belushi on SNL. 

At the show in the band's hometown of Athens, GA,  all four members of REM showed up -- the first time they'd all been on the same stage since being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 -- although Stipe did not sing, the other three played a bit. 

In Philly, Kurt Vile played a song with them, and in Boston, the sax player from Morphine. So the anticipation for the NY show was high. 

The Valentine's eve show, at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, featured no such guest stars, but it didn't matter. From the opening riff of "Radio Free Europe," the music was the star.

While Shannon is not Stipe as a vocalist, he's as committed a singer as he is an actor. The 2 1/2-hour show flew by. I shot videos  and compiled a playlist adding videos from others at other shows to replicate more of a complete setlist. 

And I went home and listened to REM records, which I hadn't in years. 

Bizarrely, the exact same night, across town at Carnegie Hall, Cat Power played a show recreating Dylan's 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert when he went electric. 

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Finally, last night, my college roommate and I went to see The Losers Lounge tribute to Neil Young, back at City Winery.  (The venue knows where its bread is buttered: the smaller upstairs room also was hosting a tribute show that night.) 

I sort of fudged things above -- I have attended Losers Lounge shows in the past, and they've all been pretty great. They've tackled everyone from Prince to the Monkees. The band is led by former Psychedelic Furs keyboardist Joe McGinty, and the format is one song per vocalist (occasionally two). 

Past "Losers"

In the time since we'd bought the tickets, Neil himself had announced he was actually touring with Crazy Horse, which made me worry the show might seem more incidental. 

But from the opening strains of three women singing "After the Gold Rush" a capella, the band quickly dispelled any notions of that. In the opposite tack of Shannon, none of the songs were played true to the record. You didn't have to be a classic rock fuddy duddy to appreciate the newfound power "Southern Man" and "Ohio" had when belted out by stellar female black vocalists. There was a disco take on "Lotta Love," a punk thrash of Buffalo Springfield's "Burned" - all of it true to the music and yet reinventing it to hear it fresh. 

I only captured one full song on video, but it shows the spirit of the night - husband and wife John Cowsill and Vicki Peterson (of the Bangles) reimagining the somewhat whiny "Winterlong" from the greatest hits compilation Decade as a majestic 60s pop song.

So have I rethought my feelings about tribute bands? If they're all this good, sure.